Skipper: from pariah to messiah

March 25 2003By John Huxley

Ricky Ponting, captain combustible of Australia's World Cup-winning team, may be joking when he lists Milo as his favourite drink, but he has obviously reinvented himself since that infamous late-night boozing session at the Bourbon and Beefsteak in Kings Cross four years ago.

Then, he emerged, blinking into daylight, one eye blackened, to admit his role in a brawl he did not even remember, to confess he had a serious drinking problem and to cop a three-match ban and a $5000 suspended fine.

Some officials said Ponting, who had been disciplined earlier for an altercation with a woman in a bar in India, was simply the wrong stuff; that even in a sport associated with big thirsts (fellow Tasmanian David Boon famously consumed 52 beers on a flight to London), he was unruly.

His redemption is not quite complete; that will happen when, as planned, he succeeds Steve Waugh as captain of the Test team, a job regarded by John Howard as more important even than that of prime minister.

But in Johannesburg on Sunday, Ponting, 28, once again proved his critics wrong when he led Australia's one-day team to its third World Cup victory. He played the key innings of the final, an explosive 140 not out, including eight sixes and four fours, off 121 balls. ");document.write("

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More importantly, perhaps, he brought the team unbeaten through a tricky 11-match campaign in which he handled public issues, ranging from the ethics of playing in Zimbabwe to the rights and wrongs of a batsman walking when he knows he is out, with authority and aplomb.

Only at the end was he speechless. "I'm at a loss for words," he said after being carried aloft off the field. "But we were outstanding." He described his own innings, which came after some low scores, as the most satisfying in his career.

"To do it when it mattered most was something special."

Despite his new squeaky cleanness, his cricketing brain, and precocious talents - he started playing cricket when he was seven and made his state debut as a teenager - Ponting was not universally welcomed as the team's one-day captain.

A knockabout bloke who plays a mean game of golf, breeds greyhounds and loves a gamble (hence his nickname Punter), Ponting seemed to lack calculation, to eschew the more cerebral demands of leadership.

Although teammates applauded his appointment, outsiders questioned his ability to impose authority on players such as Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist, who were both older and harboured captaincy ambitions of their own.

Maturity and marriage last June, to Rianna, a Wollongong student, appear to have changed that. More gregarious, perhaps, than Steve Waugh, Ponting is also more overt, more demonstrative, coach John Buchanan said.

"Punter's to the point. If a player isn't delivering . . . he won't waste any time before telling them, no matter who he is," Buchanan said.

He did not hide the team's disappointment at the distraction caused by Warne's drugs ban and yesterday made it clear that Damien Martyn and Andy Bichel had played in the final only after "they looked me in the eye and told me they were right to play".

Ponting said before the World Cup campaign: "I'm enjoying myself now more than I ever have. I'm waking up and feeling good about myself every day, the things I've done, my personal life and my teammates around me."